THEY’VE become a popular fixture of Bournemouth Air Festival and this year The Blades are celebrating their 10th season.

The team, loved by the crowds for its heart-stopping aerobatics, is made up entirely of ex-Red Arrows pilots, so they know a thing or two about daring close-quarters flying.

In all they’ve got more than 30,000 flying hours and almost 4,000 displays between them, making them among the most experienced display pilots around.

They’re also one of the few teams, alongside the Reds, that can make the dramatic entrance of flying in over the crowd from inland.

Over the past decade the team has flown more than 500 displays throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

This year Mark ‘Cutty’ Cutmore is team leader – Blade One.

He told the Daily Echo: “It’s gone very quickly and we can’t believe we’re there, it’s a good milestone for us.

“We’ve changed colour this year to a silver livery, which is very different for The Blades, as we’ve always been orange or blue.

“On a sunny day the planes just sparkle in the sun and it’s our ninth time at Bournemouth and we had all been with the Red Arrows before.

“It’s a great place to come to; it’s one of the highlights of the year for us.

“If I was taking my family to an air show, I’d bring them to Bournemouth, it’s just got everything and you can watch the display level with the aeroplanes on the cliff top and there are not many place that you can do that.

“When you see the amount of people, it really does make you think ‘wow’.”

One of The Blades’ claims to fame is, thanks to its two-seater Extra aircraft, it is the world’s only aerobatic airline.

The team regularly takes up passengers from its Northamptonshire base, including famous faces such as Ant and Dec, James Corden, Jack Whitehall and the second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, who, Mark said, came out of the experience saying that he’d never done anything quite like it in a plane.

Mark added: “The other day we flew a 94-year-old who was an ex-Lancaster pilot – he also looped and rolled.”

The team this year is complete by Blade Two, shared by co-founder of The Blades, Andy Offer, and Chris Carder.

Former Team Leader Myles Garland will be taking up the Blade Three position and the team line-up is completed by Andy Evans, who is flying the all-important and impressive solo position as Blade Four.

This year the team is supporting the RAF Benevolent Fund and Aerobility.

  • The Bournemouth Air Festival brochure, which is a commemorative Vulcan edition, is available to order online at bournemouthair.co.uk.

The 100-page special edition costs £8 and £2 from each copy sold donated to the 2015 air festival forces charities RNRMC, the RAF Benevolent Fund and The Soldiers Charity (formerly the Army Benevolent Fund).